The Five_3
by Rjartty
Summary: Part three of a triology.


**Author's note: I had to up-load the rest of it quickly because I'm not going to be around to do it for the next few weeks, thought you people wanted to finish reading it. I really would like your opinions about the story and plot… Oh well. Hope you liked it; I had to redo the last chapter a few times until I got it to sound right… **

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# The Five

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Our heritage is lost, Earth

It is where our race was given birth. 

Can we clam it back? What we lost? 

Yes, destiny urges, "We must" 

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**_PART THREE OF A TRIOLOGY _**

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Things where going smoothly, just like we planned with head quarters, although I'd have to say that Bilken's death surprised me. Merc had failed to bring anything out of Velder. They were both on the bridge, Merc was working and Velder was chained, he looked at both of us heatedly, from time to time he would throw in cold remarks, I noticed that he remarked about us, but not Spnix, I wondered why. 

Anyway, Merc had the ship flying in real space. We were very aware of the black hole that was sucking in a collapsed star, its gravitational force was tugging at the ship but we were out of danger's harm. 

Spnix was watching Merc and me, she wasn't doing anything, us four were the only people on the bridge, that was a relief. 

I felt another wave of pain hit me when I moved my jaw, the problem was becoming even more serious, I chose to ignore it. 

"Iriskon?" It was Spnix. "How do you plan to attack the base? You know it is heavily guarded and has full security." 

I nodded, feeling slightly amused at her idiotic thinking, "Attack? That's not how we're going to come in." 

She looked at me, I couldn't believe her stupidity, "What? Then how are you going to do it?" 

"Who told you that _I _am the one to do it?" I asked her, snorting. 

"You're not?" 

"No, _I'm_ not, but someone else is going to do that, the breaking in, we haven't got the fire power to get in to the facility unchallenged." 

"We're going to break in? How?" 

"That's where you come in." I replied. 

"Me?!" She yelped, "What do you mean me?" 

"You idiot, why do you think you are alive so far, you are more trouble than I would have liked to handle. The only reason you are on this mission and the reason you are alive is because I need something out of you." 

"I will not comply." She snapped, "Not after what you did." 

"Your idiocy amuses me," I confessed, "Why do you think Velder is alive? I don't need him, but I need him to get to you." 

Her eyes flickered in alarm as Velder flinched, "What?" 

"If you so much as try to give us more trouble," I said, slyly, "Velder is not going to be alive any more, and for you information; nor would you." 

"You are taking me as a hostage." She whispered. I noted that she seemed to relax a little, like she had expected me to say something else. Velder relaxed too. What was wrong with them?

"A criminal hostage," Merc corrected. He did not seem to notice what I had, "The military is not interested in saving you, and nor are they interested in saving Velder, after all, he is put up as dead on the data blanks." 

"You see, the only reason you stayed three years on field and not the usual two required is because you were not the material needed for the Protectors." I smiled wickedly, "They have no use for sentimental females. You were going to get killed anyway, no one walks away from the Protectors and lives to tell the tale of it." 

"Why?" She said, her voice heavy with emotion. "_Why?_ I thought what you did was justified, and it's NOT!" 

"You are acting silly again." I stated, "Stop acting like a mere child will you?" 

She crossed her arms leaned against the wall and stayed silent. 

I started to say something but another wave of pain plagued me. I groaned in frustration, my brain was bombarded with the sharp sting of pain. I doubled over. 

"Commander! Are you okay?" It was Merc he was at my side. I shoved him off me. 

"Yes fine, fine." I said hastily, "Get back to-" 

It happened again. My situation was hopeless I fell to the ground. I saw Spnix bend over me, she was saying something, whatever it was I wasn't very sure of it. 

Merc was looking concerned, he looked at Spnix as she talked to him then his eyes darted down t me, a look of worry flitted across his usually unemotional face. I saw her look away from me and say something, I think she was looking in Velder's direction she looked triumphant. What was happing? 

I couldn't hear or see anything as pain clouded my consciousness. I felt something cold against my jaw, and then a pulling sensation. Then more pain, then nothing at all. 

I woke up a few minutes later, Merc was looking confused and angry, Spnix was sitting quietly beside Velder. 

"What happened?" I demanded. Starting to get up. Merc shook his head and pushed me back. 

Merc started explaining, "You were implanted with something I am not familiar with, it is some sort of transmitter and a tracking device too. It is military issue and defiantly Apex level material." 

"The purpose of it, other than record what was said and point out where you are, is to mess your brain up, it's goal is to cause you discomfort, so that you make rash decisions." 

I blinked, "How did they mange to do that?" 

Merc shrugged, "I do not know." 

I gasped as the deeper truth hit me, "They know!" 

Merc nodded, "Yes they must have." 

"But how?" I whispered, "Why?" 

"How?" He snorted, "It's because of people the likes of her!" 

"What?" I was confused, why was Merc enraged? 

"Spnix, she is a traitor, she is the one who had implanted you, she is the one who questioned our orders so that we would be forced to explain, she made us sentence ourselves as criminals, the military have a lot to pin on us now since we have said a lot of sensitive things about the military and I have no doubt that they will only use some of it. " 

I was shocked, "No." I whispered, not Spnix I would have expected Merc or even Bilken, but not Spnix, it didn't fit. 

She grinned evilly at me, "You see, the only reason I stayed three years on field and not the usual two required is because I was a spy." She smiled sweetly at me, "The military too have no use for sentimental females. Nor rebellious males either; _you_ are going to get killed anyway, no one walks away from the Protectors and lives to tell the tale of it." 

I was horrified of her actions, where was Spnix? This was not Spnix, not the sentimental Vernin I had known for three years. 

"But we have no choice, we are going in." I sighed. "We will finish this mission, somehow, we will do it." 

Velder smirked at me, "You are a fool. Our boys will get you." 

"I'm sure they would." I muttered as I worked the controls. "I'm stopping the ship out of the way, we would need a smaller fighter to go in." 

Spnix grinned, "So I am going to get to fly a Spider after all." 

"Yes, by the look of it." I muttered. 

"Who's going to be on our crew?" Merc said. 

"Me, you, Spnix" I said, "Velder is not going to join us, I'm going to kill him." With that I whipped out the concealed gun that I had took from my true origonal homeworld and shot him at the head. 

Spnix didn't even flinch. 

I glared at her, then said to Merc, "And the humans that I brought along." 

Merc looked surprised, "Why them." 

"One is because there is an Andalite with them and that's what the facility is holding, and two they have some special…powers they would come in handy." 

"But…Commander they are not an advanced race-" 

"Merc, they are clever, just because they are not advanced race that does not mean that they are dumb." I smiled slyly. "Merc? You do realize that I had sealed off the bridge from the entire ship, what do you think was the purpose of that?" 

He stared blankly at me, "So that no one comes in?" 

"No," I grinned, "The contrary my friend: so that no one _comes _out." 

"What?" Spnix said, looking totally confused. At least, she still had her share of usual stupidity. 

"My fellow humans and the lone Andalite that are with them are with us in the bridge. And I will show you my point in after…ten minutes." 

When I finished talking, just as I had predicted, I saw shaped twist, grow and shift, after five minutes, I had four humans staring at me, a raptor and an Andalite as well. I smiled to myself. 

"Smart, very smart." Marco told me, "How did you guess that we were going to be here?" 

"Guess?" I looked shocked, "I knew." I let out a laugh. 

Marco shook his head, "What's your game?" 

"That's for me to know and you to find out." I let out another crackle of laughter. I was feeling hyped out. I sensed battle ahead. 

"So that means we're going?" Jake asked. 

Merc nodded, "Yes, that means that you are coming." 

Spnix shook her head, she was angered that we were going to complete the mission. 

We boarded the ship a few minutes later and Spnix got the helm, Merc got the weapons station and I was free to watch the humans. 

"Tell me." I asked them as I held my weapon at Spnix. "Do you still fight battles against each other?" 

"Why should we tell you anything?" Rachel told me, "You never give us the straight truth." 

"True," I said, "But I was merely investigating." 

"That's what they all say." Marco muttered. 

I looked at him, "You are a fine specimen of my world, cold and calculating. You are so much like us." 

"Believe me," He said, "We're nothing like you." 

"So you say." 

Rachel looked impatient, "How much longer is it?" 

"Rachel," Marco groaned, "You sound like a five year old who's whinnying in the backseat, the only difference is, he's probably be looking forward to a nice picnic. Not the same could be said about our trip." 

"Oh sure it is, Marco, it is a picnic." She laughed. 

He shook his head at her, "Hey I got a question for you," 

"Me?" She asked him. 

"Yeah, tell me, when you start talking like that, does it mean that you are insane or brave?" 

"Marco you'll never know." 

"I can help you with that answer." Cassie said, grinning. "I-" 

"Both of you: Shut up." She snapped. 

"Awww, come on Rachel, we all know how you love to be called-" 

Rachel decided she heard enough of Marco's voice. I refrain from telling you what she did. 

"We are here." Spnix reported, "I see the facility." 

I nodded, "Then what are you waiting for? Start hacking in." 

Her clawed fingers moved over to the interface, I jumped towards her and pressed the cold nuzzle of the gun against the back of her neck, "No tricks." 

She disabled all the systems, Spnix was very good with computers, the same could never be said about me. 

"We're ready to go in." She commented. 

"Take us in low." I ordered. 

She landed the ship exactly where we needed it, we blew the hatch and only Merc stayed inside. He was preparing a transportation link between the facility and the dome ship. My job was to secure the area; another team from sector five will aid the aliens. Me, I was after another thing. 

I made Spnix followed me; I could see that she was still mad at me. At what I did to the warrior, at the other unspeakable things I had done. 

"You really believe that what I did to that warrior was evil." I stated. "You really believe that helping themilitary is a good thing?" 

"Yes, I do." She scowled, "And I wonder what other things you do." 

"I do not do things for no purpose." I replied, "It always has a purpose, no matter how sick you believe it to be." 

The humans and the Andalite walked beside us, quite, this was not their argument. 

"I m very proud of our military-" She started to say. 

"Then I pity your childish loyalty, you believe our military to be something out of a fantasy book, or some war hero's dialogue." I snapped. 

"You are impossible, Iriskon, no one can be that evil, it is not the military to blame, it is you-" 

My anger rose and my blood boiled, "I'll show you what they do, you traitor, I will." 

I grabbed her arm and yanked her roughly along me, she hissed and tried to twist away. That just made me tighten my grip. 

"Stop it!" She screamed, "You're hurting me!" 

Her voice echoed across the corridor, the humans looked like they didn't know what to do. 

I yanked open the volt that kept the test specimens in, and I saw exactly what I expected. 

I shoved her in. 

**__________________________________________ **

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I stood completely still, as still as I had ever been in my life, I stared at what was in front of us, and was horrified.

Imagine a prison, you know how small the cells are, and you know the design. There were hundreds upon hundreds of these cells, there where around eighty in each row. 

The space between each row where a few yards, space of which you could freely walk through, not the same could be said about the cells, the only thing an Andalite could do in it was pace two steps and have barley enough room to turn around. 

There where cells stacked above cells, that meant that there where levels in this facility, I realized that we where on a walk way, and the walk way was the walk way for every level, an engine would power up and lift you to another level, quite like an open elevator. Only at the sides where cells, prisons, cages, I guessed that there was around ten levels, maybe twelve. 

Most of the Andalites were staring at nothing in particular, it was creepy, like they were dead but alive there was no life in their eyes. 

I noticed that most of the Andalites were not standing, they were lying down on their sides, and that's something an Andalite would never do. I noticed that they seemed to have trouble breathing, like they where suffocating, others where trembling in pain. 

Iriskon yelled at Spnix, "_Now_ talk about our military, _now_ talk about our people, how can you even think about aiding the military when you see what they are doing?!" 

Spnix was losing it, she looked scared, her eyes darted from cage to cage, her horror growing, "I didn't know, I didn't understand…I…" 

"Of course you didn't!" He yelled, "That's what I've been trying to tell you all along!" 

"But why?" She whispered, tears in her eyes, "Why do they do this?" 

That's when I noticed I was crying too, the state the prisoners where in was terrible, I'd rather die than spend a minute in that cell, it was way too small…and Andalites…well, it's wrong, it's hard to picture an Andalite in an enclosed space, they don't like it, I knew that they are highly claustrophobic. I swallowed, I felt sick. 

Iriskon turned to her, his voice trembling with emotion, "You know why, you _know_ _why_ they do this, _you know_, and so do I." He swallowed, "Our people think it had not effect them, yet it did." 

"What are you talking about?" Jake said. I noticed that Ax was freaking out. All of us were.

"You see, every race has something to be ashamed of, every race had done something wrong." He paused, "And after we did it, we thought that…that it would have no effect on us…no effect at all. We were wrong." 

What shame? Ax demanded, he was as angry as I had never seen him. As if what you do is not enough. 

"It's the reason why we act like this," Spnix said quietly, "When we left our home world, only a very few sample of my race left, only five fled." 

"Five was not enough to pass off our race, we were desperate to survive, we had gotten ourselves a deal." She said looking at the ground. 

What deal? Ax demanded. 

"That the Vernins, which is my race's true name," Iriskon said, "Accept part of Crayak in them. You see, this _is_ the only reason to why we are called The Five, anything I said otherwise isn't. It is because we are ashamed of them, it was the last surviving five of my race who had agreed to preserve Crayak inside them, thus, breeding part of Crayak in every Vernin." 

There was a stunned silence, what kind of race would do something like that? 

And I realized, only a desperate race, as they say, desperate people do desperate things. I shuddered. 

"But what does Crayak want out of this?" I wondered out loud. 

"So that if he lost the game between him and the Ellimist, there will always be part of his evil in some universe." Jake said. "I think that's why they live in a different universe, so that they don't interfere with the advancement of others, since it is Crayak's doing, I suppose that since they advanced or whatever, it's up to them." 

We were interrupted by a loud bang. The volt opened and a dozen Vernins entered, Iriskon nodded to them. One of them ran forward, he said something to Iriskon who froze completely. 

"What is it?" Spnix asked.

He ignored her, spun around and left the place. She looked like she was going to follow him but remembered something. She turn to us and took us to a corner. This surprised me, Spnix never talked to any one of us. 

"You _must_ leave!" She whispered fiercely. 

"What?" Jake said, "Why?"

"Because you…" She paused, "Iriskon will never allow you to live, he already has someone here to kill you, you know too much about the Protectors." 

"Oh swell." I groaned.

The silence stretched on. 

"I may have been a traitor to my people, even without knowing it." Spnix said quietly. "But I am not as evil as Merc and Iriskon, what I had done before Merc discovered that I was a traitor was not an act, I was simply being me, if I have to be strong, ruthless and unforgiving then I would, if I had to turn a cold heart to someone's life for a specific, justified reason, I will." 

"Spnix?" Cassie asked. "If it is true about what you say, then why are you not as evil?" 

"There is no such thing as complete evil, some except it more than others." She was smiling. "You see, what your leader said was right, it is still our decision, but there _is_ part of Crayak inside every Vernin, it is an individual's choice to use it or not." 

BOOOOOM! 

All of us jumped in surprise. I saw some of The Fives stop working look around then continue what they are doing, the guy in charge of them nodded at Spnix. She started to leave. 

"Hey." Jake said, "We're going with you." 

"But I can't-" 

"You said it yourself," Rachel interrupted, "They'd kill us." 

"But you would still be in danger-" 

Danger? Tobias laughed, We're in that every day. 

"We'll come with you. Maybe we could help, somehow." Cassie said quietly. 

"I don't think that's even possible, my vote? Let's get the hell out of here-" Rachel's elbow smartly found it's way to my side. 

Rachel grinned at me then at Spnix, "Hey, you're from our world, why shouldn't we help?" 

I slapped my head, not a comment I wanted to hear. "Why don't we just go home-" 

"Why don't you just shut up?" Rachel interrupted. Then she looked at Spnix. 

Spnix gave in and nodded at us, we went to our battle morphs and followed her out she left the volt open.She ran to where we heard the explosion. I saw another five volts. One of the volts was blown open; it had a hole through it.We jumped in. 

And got the shock of our lives. 

**__________________________________________ **

**__________________________________________ **

Evil, something even I would have considered as unthinkable. My skin crawled and my fur bristled. I felt suddenly very cold as I looked around the volt. They told me that three Apex level Intelligence Agent were here. They said they were wrapping up their work. 

When they told me about it I never believed it, only when I saw it I did. I felt ashamed, of my race mostly. And sad, very sad, what kind of race would even consider committing such a terrible crime? It's simply…cruel. 

The sound was deafening, the shrieks of the creatures that were held in the cages, they were grouped together, thrown in small cages and left to fight and live like wild animals. 

How did they get them? What kind of lowlife's idea of cruelty is this? 

As I passed the cages they rushed forward, claws reaching out to grab me, they looked starved, driven mad by the state they were in. They looked lost and terrified, sensing that I was different from the people that visited them. Somehow they knew I was here to save them. 

There was a commotion in one of the cages, were one of them started a fight with another, soon the rest were involved and the fight finished within seconds; resulting with the death of two. 

How couldn't I fell terrified when I walked down one of the many aisle? They rushed forwards, crying for my aid. Their small-clawed hands trying to grasp me, the cages were over crowed so they jumped on each other and others climbed the cages. 

The creatures caged inside were of my own flesh and blood. They were Vernins, they were the brood of Vernins. The young. 

This is the height of evilness I had never glimpsed before. Why were they torn away from their mothers? Where are their mothers? 

I didn't want to an answer to that, the last thing I wanted to know about was the whereabouts of the mothers. This is sickening. 

The young Vernins where in a terrible state, most were clearly starving, even the ones that didn't look starved had a wild look about them. Almost all were filth and blood stained, by the looks of it they were given fresh, live bait, for them to kill and eat, only judging by the scars on there bodies they had to fight for it, fight for there food in a way I never had to. 

I a few pens full of domesticated _rigrit_, a _rigrit_ is a large four legged animal, it has two horns located on it's head and another two on each side of it's neck aswell as blades at the joints of the back legs. The _rigrit_ is a dangerous prey because of its muscular body and high-powered jaw. Although it is a very satisfying meal, it just isn't food for young Vernin, mostly because it's flesh is no wear near tender. 

I guessed that the live _rigrit_ would be thrown in, it was probably five times their own size, they would be forced to kill it, hunger would raise them to a killer frenzy. Since they are inexperienced young, they would probably be trampled, gored and thrown by the beast…a very painful and agonizing death. 

I heard something move at the end of the area I was in, I ran forward, and met with an adult Vernin, he looked at me and whipped out his weapon. 

Tsaaap! 

"Harrrrwo!" I howled, but I moved fast after that, I jumped forward and knocked him to the ground, he over threw me, I crashed against one of the empty cages. 

He snorted and charged at me, at the last second I jumped nimbly away and he crashed into the metal of the bar. I landed a blow aimed to his head; he groaned and slumped to the ground. 

I heard movement behind me, I spun around, still hyped up from my first battle, and I saw Raxon. 

Raxon? Why was he here? He was suppose to be waiting in front of the ship like we planned. So that he kills the humans and the Andalite that were with me. 

"Raxon?" I said, "What happened? Why aren't you-" 

SHHHHERRRTAHHH! 

My neck burned, I felt hot blood gush down the wound, what the…? Why had Raxon struck at me? 

SHHHHERRRTAHHH! 

My face stung. "Wha…?" 

"It's over Iriskon!" He hissed, "What the Protectors told you about this volt is true, what you don't know is that I am with Spnix, a spy for the military." 

"But…" I stuttered, "But you said…you didn't believe it, you said that… But you are my friend! Why didn't you-" 

"You were slightly too easy, Iriskon, I needed someone who was familiar with the Protectors, I had to move the information fast. Once I won your trust…the rest was easy!" 

"You…You think what they are doing is justified?" I whispered, "And I thought I knew you." 

"You know nothing about me." He laughed, "Belkin was the smartest of all of you, he figured it out, in battle he noticed my lack of interest in hitting the fighters, he saw that I missed, he saw me hesitate each time I had to fire. He was too smart for his own good, it got him killed." 

I went cold, "_What?_" 

"That's right." He said, "_I_ killed him." 

This was some terrible nightmare, this is not reality, my one and only friend turns out to be an enemy along with a teammate that betrayed me. No this is not true, this is some kind of trick, an experiment carried out by the military… 

"You know about Spnix?" I asked. 

"Know?" He laughed, "Iriskon I was the one who brought Spnix into the facility, and care to guess how I did that? How was it possible?" 

"What are you talking about?" 

"It's because of you, I was friends with a veteran very well known to the Protectors, you worked for them hard and you gave'em a few wins. They trusted you." 

No. No, it was not possible, this…I had been used! Again! 

He raised a military issue weapon at me, "See you in hell Iriskon." 

I drew out my concealed weapon and shot him, my aim was pointed at his one beating heart. 

He dropped to the ground. 

I snapped away, ignoring the flood of thoughts and emotions. All of that was irrelevant now; all that mattered was the mission, the Apex intelligence level Agents. 

Where were the other two agents? I walked cautiously around the perimeter; I looked around the corner of an airtight room, ready to go in to investigate- 

BONK! 

"Arrh!" I yelped as something hit me on the neck. Out of balance, I was knocked to the ground. Someone kicked me in and locked me inside. 

"Hey!" I complained. "Let me out!" 

No response, whoever knocked me in was already away to wrap up their work. I spent ten minutes screaming my lungs out, when I saw a familiar shape loom outside, there was a small window on the door that sealed me in, I hammered on the metal and yelled some more. 

I saw a black face peer at me. The face grinned and a voice laughed in my head. 

"Come on!" I yelled. "Get me out!" 

Wouldn't you love it if I walked away? Marco laughed again. 

"Don't even think about it!" I hollered. He disappeared from view and I started to yell for him. 

Clamph! 

I heard the heavy door's lock spinning and it opened. I stepped out, Marco was still near me, he looked around. Miserable place huh? 

I nodded but said nothing. I had two more agents to catch. I followed Marco and he led me to the rest. I saw Spnix with them, she had cornered another Agent, I glared at him. 

"What is the purpose of this facility?" I asked. I wanted to make sure, I still didn't believe it, I wanted to hear the words for myself, with my own ears. 

"That is not your concern." He growled. 

"It is." I snapped, "Know tell me, before I set my friends at you." 

He decided that he didn't want to fight the parade of animals that stood before him. "They are the new generation." 

"What?" I snapped. 

"The new generation of Vernin, a generation for the army." He smiled, I saw something mad shine through his eyes. "We are preparing clam back our home world-" 

"But we lost Earth!" I shouted at him. 

"We want it back!" He screamed. 

"We should move on!" I cried out in anguish. 

"Oh we will! We will move on! We are going to conquer the beyond, we have grown strong enough for it, all we need is an army of merciless warriors who would do what has to be done, raised in conditions like these, they would grow to be-without any doubt- vile fighters who thrive for the scene of blood, they will be brought up as animals so that they have no sentient conscious of what they are doing, they will be raised to kill so kill they would do for the rest of their miserable lives-" 

"How did you get them?" I yelled, "Where are their mothers?" 

"Their mothers?" He laughed. "Why, we killed their mothers. That's what happened to them." 

I slammed him. "You wouldn't be laughing when I'm done with you!" 

"Commander?" She asked, "What do we do with him?" 

I thought for a moment, hard to think with the general sound of the young screaming and yelling, they were very angry, they didn't like the way they were being treated and wanted to get a slice out of the creature that had… 

I smiled. Grabbed his arm, advanced to one of the cages, I found the biggest over crowded one, snarled at the children to back away, which they did, opened the cage, shoved him in and closed the door behind him. I stepped back. 

Total silence from the children complete and total silence, all the young in the cages had fell silent. They looked curiously at the Agent, the ones in the cage and the ones nearest to the cage. 

The Agent gasped, struggled to his feet, he was an old Vernin, and old Vernins were known for there impatient with the young, or the stupid. He backed away. Terrified. 

The silence ended with shrieks of anticipation. There were about thirty-five in the cage that I had shoved him into. They mobbed the Agent and muffled his screams-it was over within minutes. 

"There is one Agent left," I said. 

"Oh, him?" Spnix said, "Forget him, he's dead." 

"What do you mean?" I asked. 

"He got trapped between the wires of an unfinished cage, a _rigrit _trampled him into the wire, there's VHT gas in there, he's soon to die." 

"I want to see who he is." I said, "Besides, we have to kill him, you know what kind of death a Vernin could face with VHT gas." 

"He deserves it." She said 

"You do know that there are side effects to the gas," I said, feeling annoyed, "We have to make sure that it does not get out of the perimeter." 

She nodded and flowed me, VHT gas exposure is terrible, it corrodes the lungs. Your internal organs would bleed and you would go blind, of course, that happens while your skin is being eaten at, you would be beyond visual recondition. 

But the gas needs a minimum of ten minutes to start it's harm, in the ten minutes exposure of the gas you don't feel it at all, it is odorless, so you can't smell it, around nine minutes your skin feels as if it had been rubbed against sandpaper. You feel a sharp sting inside your nose and your head would start aching. 

I stopped a few feet away from the tangled mess of a Vernin, he must have been in there for around twenty minutes. I could see the wires of the unfinished cage wrapped around him, holding him down. He was struggling, that caused the sharp wire to sink in his corroded skin and become more tangled. I saw that he was a Black like me, and a few years younger. 

Those pieces of information made me pity him, only a little though. Spnix and the rest of our group; which consisted of a raptor, a tiger, a grizzly, a gorilla, a wolf and an Andalite, stood behind me. It was the first time to which I noticed that they had been involved in some bloody battle with something. I did not know what, nor did I ask or even cared. Humans and the Andalites were not my responsibility so they were not my concern. 

Although the gas blinded the Vernin, he could hear. 

"Oh, no." Spnix whispered. She fell to the ground, she looked sick. 

"Urgh!" The Vernin groaned. His voice croaked. His body was badly corroded; I was surprised that he was alive. 

"Help!" He croaked. 

My blood froze. 

"Help!" He screamed, sensing our presence, "Don't let me die here!" 

My brain ground to a halt. 

"I-" He coughed and I heard blood gurgle. 

My heart picked up it's pace and went insane. 

"Commander." Spnix whispered, "You think we could give him a clean death?" 

I felt light headed, like I was going to faint or get knocked out. 

"Iriskon?" She whispered. "What is it?" 

The Vernin's body jolted, he froze, then in total desbelief he cried out, "Iriskon?" 

My vision swam…his voice, it was his voice…I said nothing, I couldn't. I wouldn't. 

"IRISKON!" He screamed, "IS THAT YOU?" 

My head swirled with emotion. 

"Iriskon? Is that you?" 

Shame on you, shame on you... and anger. Anger like nothing I had ever experienced, like a blazing flame flickering away at my heart, eating at my guts, twisting me, crippling me into a pain that boiled my blood. 

"Iriskon, help me!" 

You are beyond help. I cannot help you…it's impossible, don't you understand? After all these years, after all the pain of being humiliated in front of people because of you... 

"Iriskon help! I need you!" 

You don't need me, you never needed me, you always were the best in the eyes of two who had loved you, and had no room for me. 

For you see, it hurts me, I never talked about it but it did. And your unexpected arrival has astounded me, I never even thought that for a second you would have something to do with this, no, no, no, not you, never you, you were the best, the honorable example of a Vernin… The shinning pride in the eyes of our… 

"Commander?" Spnix asked, she looked frightened, "Do you know him?" 

Do I know him? I wanted to laugh and cry at the question. Yes I do…and I don't. 

"IRISKON!" He yelled. Twisting. 

I didn't move. The Apex level intelligence agent screamed in pain. 

I brought out a gun, the one I found from my home planet, it was operated in a similar way to the way our own weapons do, we have beams, but we have guns as well. I slowly checked the weapon. I had a bullet left, just one.

"Iriskon! Help me!" He screamed in pain and agony. It was his voice that I recognized. A voice that I had grew up with, a voice that I had come to despise, a voice that forever nagged me, pointing out my flaws... 

Help you? No, help me. 

"Don't do this to me!" He cursed, "Answer me!" 

No, _you_ did this to me, you did this to yourself. And as for answering…I loaded the weapon. He heard me. 

He twisted helpless. 

I aimed. 

He started yelling at me. Begging, saying that he was sorry, that he apologized for what he did. 

Betrayed, betrayed within, twice already today, by someone I had almost cared for and my very own friend; and now this…? 

I lifted the safety hatch and my finger found the trigger, I hesitated, maybe we could save him, and maybe we could. Hesitated again, looking at him for the last time, remembering. Recalling the memories, searching to see if I felt a hint of affection or love towards him, any devotion or happy times that I had spent with him. 

I found none. Absolutely nothing. My feeling for him had always been cold, hatred and jealousy. Maybe I would have cared if…if what though? If what? 

"Arpathlo." I whispered, "Forgive me."

"IRISKKKKKON!" The Apex level intellegence officer cried out.

"Goodbye." My lips mouthed. "Goodbye little brother."

My finger squeezed. 

**__________________________________________ **

** **


End file.
